Earl Grey Banana Muffins (with date nut crumble)

Sometimes you just get an idea in your head and you need to run with it. This earl grey banana muffin was one of those thoughts. This week was a rough one in terms of travel away from home for work. A lot of late nights, long days, and so on Sundays, I love to get back to my normal routine and cook, clean and get organized for the week. I've been drinking a lot of earl grey lately. So I got to thinking, why not steam it into milk and bake with it? I've seen recipes like this before, so I decided to put to use the one sad banana on my counter and make some muffins. The result is a light banana flavor combined with the aromatics of the tea in a delicious muffin. [And topped with an optional date nut crumble!]

I start first by bringing my almond milk to a light boil - I then put in about 4-5 tea bags of earl grey tea, turn off the heat and swirl it for a few minutes to let it steep. I then leave it on the burners to cool while I work on the rest. Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees and prepare your ingredients. Take your cooled almond-tea milk and add 2 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar - this will essentially create a nondairy butter milk. Let it sit for a few minutes to 'curdle.' In a medium sized bowl I combine all of the dry ingredients first. Then in a small mixing bowl, melt the coconut oil, butter, maple syrup and vanilla slightly. Mash in the banana after that. When ready, combine all ingredients and an egg into the dry bowl. Mix thoroughly. I like to pour about 3/4 of the cup of a muffin tin. At this point, I felt like something was missing.

I decided I wanted something a little crumbling and crunchy on top - so in my little food processor, I blended together dates, oats, sunflower seeds, almonds and a little butter. I shmooshed that into the top of the muffin and into the oven it went. About 20 minutes later, these light and yummy muffins were ready. Lets also not forget to mention that they are both gluten and dairy free - and could easily be made vegan with use of a flax egg.

Earl Grey Banana Muffins (with date nut crumble)

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups oat flour

• 1/2 cup gluten free flour

• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 1 1/2 ground flax

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

• 2 tablespoons coconut oil

• 2 tablespoons vegan butter

• 1 small banana

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• 2 tablespoons maple syrup

• 3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk steeped with 4 bags Tazo earl gray tea

• 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

• 1 egg

Topping (optional)

• 10 pitted dates

• 1/4 cup almonds

• 1/4 cup oats

• 1/4 cup sunflower seeds

• 2 teaspoons vegan butter

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Over high heat in a small saucepan, bring almond milk to a quick boil. Turn off heat and steep 4 earl grey tea bags. Let cool.

3. In a medium bowl, mix together all dry ingredients. Set aside.

4. Take cooled almond milk and add apple cider vinegar. Set aside to 'curdle.'

5. Melt coconut oil and butter and mash together banana and other wet ingredients in a small bowl.

6. Pour all ingredients into the dry and mix thoroughly.

7. In a greased muffin tin, fill to about 3/4 of the way.

8. In a small food processor, combined topping ingredients until crumbly and top muffins in tins. Push crumble into batter a little.

9. Bake for 20 minutes or until a knife comes out clean. Let cool and enjoy.

10. Keep in refrigerator for up to one week.

xx

Rita